Battle of Marignano

The Battle of Marignano (13-14 September 1515) was the decisive and final battle of the War of the League of Cambrai, fought between the Franco-Venetian army of King Francis I of France and Bartolomeo d'Alviano and a Swiss-Milanese army led by Marx Roist, Mattheus Schiner, and Maximilian Sforza. The Franco-Venetian army decisively defeated the Swiss, forcing them to agree to the Treaty of Fribourg; a "perpetual peace" was established between the Kingdom of France and the Swiss cantons.

In 1513, following the Battle of Novara, the Swiss mercenaries restored Maximilian Sforza to power as Duke of Milan. In 1515, King Francis I's army hauled its cannon across the Col de l'Argentiere in the Alps, and the French army surprised the Swiss forces and captured Prospero Colonna. The demoralized Swiss almost considered abandoning Milan, but fresh Swiss troops arrived in the region, led by Cardinal Mattheus Schiner. Schiner convinced his troops that they would find an enormous profit in victory, appealed to their national pride, and urged them to fight against the French in battle. The Swiss sprang to arms, and they advanced to meet Francis' army on an open plain at Marignano.

King Francis led several cavalry charges to push bakc temporary Swiss advances, and many of the foremost French commanders were killed in the night fighting on the first day of the battle. In the darkest hours, the fighting stopped, and both armies reconvened the next morning. Massed cannon fire tore bloody furrows deep in the Swiss ranks, but they continued to charge. The French also massed arquebusiers to prevent the Swiss from pushing farther forward, and the arrival of d'Alviano's Venetian forces at mid-day turned the tide of the battle. The Swiss ranks were in bloody shambles as the result of several failed attacks, and they grudgingly gave ground and withdrew. The failure of the Swiss to take the French cannon and the arrival of the Venetians were the primary causes of the Swiss defeat, and the Swiss suffered up to 14,000 losses (64% losses), while the French lost up to 8,000 men (up to 21% losses).